ARM's Race: Deal with Microsoft to power next-gen PCs will continue to propel chip designer.

After
beating year-end profit forecasts, thanks in part to iPhone and iPad sales,
shares of ARM Holdings hit a 10-year high yesterday, The Telegraph reports.

ARM, chip
designer for most of the world's mobile devices, has been at the center of
take-over speculation. This speculation helped the company's shares close at
547 1/2p, the highest since the dotcom bubble 10 years ago, according to The
Telegraph.

"It's
hard to see what could have been better in this set of results. We've had a
record in terms of earnings, and a record backlog up 75 percent [compared with
last year]," ARM CEO Warren East told The Telegraph. "We
are exposed to areas of strong structural growth. Just about everything is
being connected to the internet, all of these are opportunities for ARM
technology."

ARM
reported a 73-percent increase in pre-tax profits to £167.4 million in
2010. Year-end revenue was up 33 percent, to £406.6 million.

The
company is poised for continued success. At CES last month, ARM announced a partnership with Microsoft to
power the next generation of Windows PCs -- traditionally Intel territory. Many
took the partnership as a sign that Microsoft felt Intel couldn't compete
against ARM's power-savvy architecture. Intel countered, claiming that because it would
take Microsoft so long to ready its next OS, Intel would have designs ready by
then that could take on ARM.

"Windows
will always run best on Intel," an Intel spokesman was quoted saying.
"Porting Windows to a new architecture, where chips are generally
incompatible with each other and require sizable investment in millions of
other software code, applications and middleware will be complex and
costly."

As East
admitted, ARM would not begin to profit from the Microsoft deal for at least
four years, because the new products have to be designed and
built. "Clearly the Microsoft announcement is a massive deal,"
East told The Telegraph. "It's all a question of when [ARM
will begin to power desktop computers]. I don't expect a massive share in PCs
in the short term but I certainly do from tablets."

While
some analysts predict that ARM could one day power half of the world's PCs, the
company's true threat to Intel -- especially in the present tense -- remains modest.

"I'm an Internet expert too. It's all right to wire the industrial zone only, but there are many problems if other regions of the North are wired." -- North Korean Supreme Commander Kim Jong-il